1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lens barrel, and more particularly, to a lens barrel including a drive mechanism capable of switching between manual driving and electric driving.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a lens barrel that is applied to a camera or the like for acquiring images, various types of lens barrels that include a focus adjustment mechanism configured to be able to switch between a manual focus action based on manual operation and an autofocus action that is performed using electric driving are disclosed by, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-208633, and are put to practical use.
On the other hand, regarding cameras and the like in recent years, those which are configured to be able to record sound together with shot images and those which are capable of shooting/recording a video entailing sound recording, in addition to performing a shooting/recording action of a still image, are widespread.
In the case of performing, for example, video shooting using a conventional camera or the like that is configured as above, or more specifically, a camera that is capable of shooting a still image and a video, for example, the shooting action is constantly taking place when the video shooting is being performed, but also during such a shooting action, there are cases where various operations, such as zooming, focusing, and the like, are desired to be performed.
For example, during video shooting, there is a demand that zooming is changed quietly at a constant speed, and electric zooming is most convenient.
On the other hand, at the time of still image shooting, there is a demand that desired setting is freely and swiftly performed by manual operation with respect to various operations such as zooming, focusing, and the like.
Furthermore, in a lens drive mechanism applied to a conventional lens barrel, for example, a stepper motor or the like is used as a drive motor for separately moving a plurality of lenses in an optical direction, and, in many cases, a close-coupled type lens moving mechanism that is favorable for silencing and where the mechanism can be simply configured is adopted.